A question from CF.
I’ve googled myself just to see what comes up. Nothing deleterious. Which websites do HR people visit in order to check you out, so to speak?
In my opinion, Human Resources shouldn’t be checking anyone out via Google or any other website. I’ve said this before: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the internet is neither reliable nor valid. You never know if the information is accurate. Also, f–k anyone from Human Resources or legal who wants to bring the holier-than-thou approach to the hiring process. You’re not perfect. Neither are your candidates.
That being said, many HR people are using Google, Facebook, and MySpace to check up on you. They might use Twitter. Some will review your LinkedIn profile.
A friend of mine told me to unplug myself from the internet because we can’t trust the cloud. I think it’s too late — so just use some common sense, job seekers. If there’s something up on the internet that you truly regret, try to find a way to dissociate yourself from the content.
Also, here’s some advice: don’t work for a company that is more concerned about your online consumption habits than your knowledge, skills, and abilities.
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That’s good advice. It’s pretty much inevitable with what’s out there today that people will look you up on the internet. It’s just important that you are smart about what you put out there, especially on the sites that can be indexed.
I’m surprised by your response. You practically live on the interwebs (or least your persona is highly visible). Anyone who would consider working with you would have a field day looking at your internet activity. I personally would hire you just for your love of bacon.
Kidding aside, I don’t see why HR should avoid looking up a candidate’s internet presence. I think you’re right that doing this with a holier-than-thou attitude is a risk. And by no means is this a replacement for background checks. But if I have a position that is customer or public facing, I’d like to see how this person has represented themselves publicly, if only to have an informed conversation with the candidate.
When I was younger, I was a bit less concerned with what I did online (part of it was, admittedly, immaturity, and part of it was the late-90′s/early 2000′s “wild frontier” mentality of the Web).
But nowadays, I assume anything I say or do online, even if I don’t use my real name or any identifying information, can be seen by everyone in the world and will be for decades. So, I act accordingly.
Laurie, I’m with you on this one. Not because I think that anyone should be able to put anything out there (they can, but at their own peril) and not because I despise holier-than-thou HR people (I do), but because as an HR professional I just don’t have the time to google all of the candidates who apply. If I am not willing to google all of them, then I’m not googling just one. I don’t like it and I don’t think it’s wise. The expectation is that hiring managers don’t google candidates, nor do their supervisors.
There are two steam engines full of stupidity racing towards each other on the same track with this one. First train is full of people that lack the common sense to not post stupid crap out there. Train two is filled to the brim with people that think everything they read on the intergoogles is true.
The inevitable crash will be spectacular.
If my continued climb up the corporate ladder means I cannot be human, have emotions or my own opinions that I will check out. I am growing tired of the double standards, drunks, poor behavior and outright lies managers tell in an effort to climb the ladder. I am shooting for open honesty and if that does not serve the company so be it I will seek employment elsewhere.
Maybe corporate America should accept that people are people, and work on cutting loose the non-productive fat and focus on retaining and rewarding talent. While I am dreaming ranting we should finally addressed corporate crime in America with stiff sentences for white collar crimes.
Rigorous honesty people it is not that hard, maybe your parents mentioned it once or twice..
http://corporatecrimereporter.com
http://www.ussc.gov/sympo/wcsympo.pdf
I’m definitely with you on this one– Bravo!!
I’m on the cusp of Boom-Boom and Gen-X– and I witnessed first hand the introduction of IT Technology– and the Internet. The World Wide Web was initially set up as a FREE forum for all opinions, races, creeds, religions, what have you. With the onslaught of “commerce” onto the web– practically from day one, businesses and government have been using search engines to snoop, spy and stalk your every word to either judge you, sell you something or see if they can arrest you. This internet was free once– it ain’t no more. But I still stick to right-to-privacy with my candidates and will never look up thier social media sites– unless I want to see if thier cute or not!
I’m a great worker and very professional — but I’m a goth sword swallower in my off hours. You don’t like goth music? huh?? You think sword swallowing’s a little wierd?? I don’t get the job?? Ridiculous!!
Let’s add the big D word, discrimination, to the mix. The web can give you visibility to people’s race, color, religion, national origin, age, disabilities & etc.
Are you rejecting an applicant because they did something stupid (but legal) on web? Or did you learn something that you allowed you to discriminate?
How would you prove that your decision was based upon the web stupidity and not upon another factor?
@ReviewSnap Thanks!
@DanFlan You know, most of my life is not on the internet. It seems that way to others, though, which I why I always have an internal conversation in my head about whether or not I’m setting a good example. I try to embrace living a life online — but some stuff about me is persona and private. So I wonder if recruiters and HR professionals have enough sophistication to understand that everything they read and see on the internet isn’t true (or maybe incomplete)?
@Tim I hate the defensive nature of media and the internet, sometimes.
@Jackbuilt I saw a presentation at ERE that M.E. Slayter blogged about: http://smartblogs.com/workforce/2009/09/11/where-social-media-meets-our-biases/ She’s totally right.
@Puf The body count will be high.
@MattyMat OMG, goth sword swallower. Is that some kind of euphemism? I had no idea you were on the Boomer/GenX cusp. So is my husband, and I see how he shakes his head at the stupidity out there.
I never Google candidates. Why would I? I don’t give a crap what you did on your vacation to Mexico, as long as you don’t show up at work drunk and covered in glitter.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind it at all if you showed up covered in glitter, but your supervisor might & the IT guys won’t like it if you gum up the computer with glitter.
Yeah, be careful what you post online. Of course. It could hurt a job lead if someone wants to Google you and they’re self-righteous when they see you having a good time. It could also gain you a stalker. Who knows!
That said, I would probably question your judgment for posting something really lewd that was publicly accessible, which, I think, is different from judging you based on the photo itself. If you want to get your freak on with male strippers in Vegas, that’s your business, but it’s a bit silly and exhibitionist to post that for the entire world to see. I question people’s judgment just for posting their relationship woes for Facebook updates. Really? Nobody wants to see that. Still, does it relate to the job? Maybe. Maybe not.
Frankly, I get enough TMI from employee, so I really don’t feel the need to seek it of potential hires.
@MattyMat – Goth sword swallower? That is multiple levels of awesome. You’re hired.
Googling a prospective hire could potentially reveal all sorts of information that HR shouldn’t know about: age, health issues, disability status, religious views, etc. That just opens a huge can of liability worms.
At the same time, a company would naturally want to be aware of any untoward information that appears online about a person applying for a prominent, public-interfacing position (e.g. a sales rep).
In any event, it’s best to keep your online presence relatively tidy, even if squeaky clean is no longer an option. It also helps if your name is common enough–or shared by someone famous–to make Google results worthless. I’m thinking of going with James Brown.
Try zoominfo.com
Its shows business and PR links but not so much on personal side.
As far as company intrusian of web presence in social media…sorry I can’t comment (someone might be watching me)…
M
What’s Google? Just askin’
Allow me to tell you a true story! We had a client this year who had a very devious employee working for them. This employee worked for a national chain and we do their mystery shopping for them.
The employee was angry at the store (he was fired), so he set up shop in our data base. He used his friends’ identities for his own value and tried to get shops at his former employeer. He did one shop for us and gave the store a good score. Everyone paid him some money from their bonus as a thank you. Eventually someone told corporate about what he was doing.
We worked with their loss prevention people and we found out who it was and ran a scan on them (We also do social media monitoring). Wow!!! What we found out about him was incredible. Imagine the worse stuff possible and that was him.
This is an example of how not running a scan somehow on a potential hire can hurt a company. If they had seen his online stuff, he would never had gotten the job and it would have saved the company some money and aggravation!
Just the other side of the coin!
It’s like a breath of sanity here. Awesome.
Besides, everyone knows the internet is for porn anyway, so why be shocked when you find it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645#
@Laurie I concur with your husband. I’ve got whiplash from shaking my head so much!!
And no– I’m not a pufter– but wish I was sometimes— I’d get laid alot more often, that’s for sure!
@H Aria Ok– let’s talk benefits and signing bonus.
@mouse Thank God for the Internet!! Those dog-eared Playboys were getting a bit stale–
Best way to google someone- use their email address, not their name.
@H Aria What if you google someone — only to find out that they are normal? Disappointing.
@Michael GREAT HR: UR DOIN IT WRONG.
@mouse I think the internet is for porn and ordering shoes.
@David T. Don’t give out our trade secrets!
We usually don’t (well, at least I don’t) search people before they are hired. I think, depending on the situation, it might be good to check on what’s out there after someone has been terminated though. More out of concern for clients then anything else.
HR Goth Boomer/GenX cuspers unite!
There are a lot of reasons for researching online besides snooping. If a candidate tells me they work for XYZ Company, then I’m Googing XYZ before the interview. Just as I expect them to Google and research my organization before they walk in the door.
Honestly, I’m hearing plenty of holier-than-thou attitudes on both sides of this discussion.
Honestly, I don’t think it makes sense to incorporate a full web search into the hiring of every candidate.
How much do you want to diminish your talent pool?
How would you like it if someone did it to you? (I don’t care)
Like any other tool, this one should be exercised with discretion, and primarily when there is a valid record for doing so?
Oh and are you keeping all the records and notes of what you find in your hiring files for the OFCCP?
You can’t assume what you read online is true, is in the appropriate context, the full picture, or even the right person. I have even heard rumors that there is another Corey Feldman out there in the world.
As for self righteous HR people, I’m not a big fan of the self righteous people, regardless of profession. Of course that probably has something to do with the fact we often dislike in others what we dislike in ourselves. Self righteousness is an inherently human trait and a bias most if not all of us need to keep in check. Speaking of Biases, I agree with @SalesComp; you increase your likelihood of being exposed to information that has no business entering into a hiring decision potentially opening yourself and company to liability.
Of course you should be careful what you post online, but in the world of ubiquitous camera/video phones, you can’t always control what other people post online, and once out, good luck getting that back in Pandora’s Box. You can hope that intelligent professionals will always behave with the utmost decorum however it was only a couple months ago I saw HR Pros flashing on Bourbon Street at the SHRM 09 conference. Hopefully if any of them come across some candidate’s immortalized indiscretion, they might remember their own occasional lack of good judgment.
@SalesComp Agree. Discrimination is key, here.
@Kathy Well that’s a good example but I wonder if googling will hold up in a court of law. It’s neither a reliable nor valid way to check the background of employees, and there may be an impact (conscious or not) to certain segments of our society.
@HR Hooligan What did we do before the internet when people were hired and fired? Seems like years ago!
@Kris Yup, it’s pretty easy to be holier than thou on my blog. I’m included in that.
@Michael Oh rats, you mean the OFCCP cares about what I find online and how it impacts the hiring process? You mean I just can’t google someone and make a snap decision and pretend like I never googled them in the first place?
@Corey Wait, who flashed on Bourbon Street? How did I miss that?!
Hey— I Googled myself yesterday and found out I was pretty impressed with myself— Do I get the job???
@mattymat Your standards are so low!
Laurie — another outstanding quote from you — I think I’m going to keep this one for future use!
“Also, here’s some advice: don’t work for a company that is more concerned about your online consumption habits than your knowledge, skills, and abilities.”
- Meg
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